Right rear oil leak revisited

[DonDDR]

I posted about this before and got a ton of helpful responses. Thanks to all that chimed in. Now I have the car apart to do the VC gaskets after doing the cam seals and it does not look like vc gaskets are the issue. There is some wet oil on the cylinder head/vc gasket where it might leak but nothing big. So I took the housing off the rear cam seal where the sensor bolts on. Bingo. I did install the cam seal in proper and, as a ***** as was, its cool. The leak was coming from the end of the cam seal housing where it bolts to the head. There was no sealant on those surfaces where it meets the head but there was a bunch of some grey sealant on the vc gaskets. Not so much on the long runs but a significant amount in the corners. Enuff that it was on the inside of the valve covers in the motor. Was this sealant factory? I scrapped it all off and installed new vc gaskets and put a small amount of sealant on the outer edge of the cam housing. Golden. No leaks. If you have this issue and what I found solves your problem be careful not to get too much sealant on the cam seal housing. Look at the attach pic. I think the 2 grooves are to oil the cam seal. If one gets too much sealant and it squices into those grooves the back of the cam seal will not be lubricated as needed. Let me know what any of you have experienced with this pain in the ass leak.

 

[SHOdded]

Unlikely the sealant was factory. It was most likely from someone removing the valve cover gasket and then using the sealant to make sure the gasket did not roll when the valve cover was reinstalled.